About God



Who Do You See?Posted on 11/22/2008 - Herb Montgomery

Who Do You See Have you ever tried to define for someone what a paradigm is? Our paradigms are not the world around us, but the way we see the world. They are our personal maps of our life surroundings. When we look at a map, we are not looking at actual streets. We see someone's interpretation of the actual streets. We judge the accuracy of a map by how closely it matches the streets themselves. In the same way, our paradigms are not reality, but rather the way we view that reality. We can judge the accuracy of our paradigms by how closely they follow what is true. Understanding our own personal paradigms of God and the roles they play in our relationship with Him help explain why many of us get frustrated in our religious experience. How we see determines how we think. How we think determines how we feel. And how we feel determines how we behave. When we run into difficulties, how often do we simply focus on our behavior and think we need to try harder? The problem is not our behavior, but the way we see God.

What is your picture of God? What do you perceive His thoughts and feelings for you to be? The bulk of today's religions, whether Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam or even Christianity, focus largely on the area of behavior. Ninety-nine percent of all the sermons we listen to, all of the books we read, and all of the quotations we underline deal with our behavior. No wonder many of us feel as if we are getting nowhere. As long as we focus our effort and attention in these areas alone, the solution to our frustrations with religion will continue to evade us.

Over the years, I have met many people who claim they used to be Christians. When I ask why they are no longer, the response is always the same. They got tired of the frustration of never being able to exhibit the behavior they knew they should. Today they believe Christianity is a joke. But I would like to suggest that the problem is not Christianity; the problem is the way we, as Christians, often view God.

In John 6:63, Jesus explained it this way:
"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."

Here Jesus makes a profound statement. What every Christian wants is a dynamic, real, Christian experience. They want their relationship with God to be alive! Jesus states very clearly that it is the spirit that gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The flesh could be summed up as our attempts to put forth more effort on behavioral conformity. But Jesus said this profits nothing. What we need is the spirit, but look how He defines this spirit. "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, they are life." What, or rather, who were the words of Jesus about? Many times, when Jesus spoke, His very first words were, "The kingdom of heaven is like . . ." Jesus was primarily concerned with how we see the kingdom of heaven, how we view God. Jesus knew that to call for behavioral change while leaving our corrupted pictures of God in tact, would only produce frustration. So, He began with the solution. He sought to correct our maps. Jesus sought to change our perception of what type of person we see God to be. Jesus virtually was saying, "Listen, more effort will profit you nothing. What you need is a radical change in the way you see God. A correct understanding of what type of person God is will infuse your experience with the passion and life for which you so desperately long. My teachings about God are spirit "they are life!"

Notice the process. Change in how we see produces change in how we think. Change in how we think produces change in how we feel. Change in how we feel produces change in how we behave. The change that we long to experience in our behavior does not come through more effort. It comes through a change in how we see. Look closely at the following illustration:

Seeing - - - - Thinking - - - - Feeling - - - - Behavior

Do you long for change? Do you long to have a living, dynamic relationship with God? Embark on a journey of change-a change in perception. Step into the realm of Amazing Grace, Extravagant Love and Intimate Friendship. In these themes alone we will find the change we long for.
(To find out more concerning this topic, please listen to the presentation "What is God Like"or "Whom Do You See?")